Timmins Report ERG moving on tailings

ERG Resources has picked up a $2.475-million building permit from the city of Timmins, Ont., for the construction of the shell of its new tailings treatment mill building on the property of Giant Yellowknife Mines.

The $65- to $70-million tailings recovery project will see the company recover an estimated 40% of the 2.3 million oz of gold still remaining in old Timmins-area tailings.

Dennis Reid, superintendent of property services and land development for Giant Yellowknife and its parent, Pamour Inc., says most of the development money will have been spent by December, 1988.

Much of the money will be used for land acquisition. The concerns of the people of Timmins were registered in no uncertain terms at an open house sponsored by erg in connection with the project.

Many of the 500 people who attended the information session were interested in knowing what effect the project would have on the environment in and around Timmins.

They were assured by project manager Chris Harvey that the entire 17-year project would have only a minimum effect and, in any event, any place from which tailings were removed would be redeveloped into parkland or similar- type developments.

The location scheduled to be due up in 1989-90 is the popular Schumacher Park, but erg maintains that as soon as the tailings are removed from the park, the area will be refilled with pyrite-free tailings, landscaped complete with an 11-acre lake, trees, shrubs and grassed areas.

Some of the tailings scheduled to be re-treated have been responsible for dust and acid drainage problems in built-up areas, and these problems will be eliminated as the areas are rehabilitated.

Construction is set to begin on a new 500-ton-per-day gold mill in Stock Twp., about 50 miles east of downtown Timmins, just beyond the city limits, on property being developed by St Andrew Goldfields. Harry Michie, vice-president exploration, said piles will be driven into the bedrock in early January in preparation for the construction of a $12.5-million, fully equipped mill building.

Additional mine equipment and other buildings will bring the total cost of the development project to about $16 million, he said. He added that once the mill buildings and installation of equipment begin, it will take about 15 months to build.

St Andrew Goldfields is in the process of bringing into production its Stock Twp. property, which has mineable reserves of one million tons grading on average 0.19 oz gold per ton. The target date for production is September, 1988. It is hoped the company’s Taylor Twp. property — the Porphyry zone located seven miles east of the Stock Twp. property — will contribute 100 to 200 tons per day to the mill feed once production begins.

Michie also said the contracting company handling the mine work right now was also having a hard time keeping people, because there are so many jobs open for qualified miners, and they tend to gravitate to where they can make the most money. “We hope to change that situation by March,” said Michie.

The resason for the shortage of miners and mill crew workers is the proliferation of projects caused by the flow-through-share method of resource financing.

Malcolm Slack, the Timmins native who almost single-handedly rescued Belmoral Mines from financial disaster, still has a soft spot in his heart for his old alma mater, the Haileybury School of Mines. Slack was in Timmins Nov 12 to address a meeting of the Porcupine branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

The Haileybury School of Mines is currently struggling because of declining enrolment and the resulting loss of revenue from the provincial government. But Slack and some other prominent Canadian mining figures are doing something about it. Slack is chairman of an endowment program for the school.

“What we are trying to do is get each mining company and other associated companies in Canada to donate 1,000 of its treasury shares to the school,” he said. “And we think we have convinced the provincial government to put on hold its plans to close the school until we have this funding in place.”

He said the response from the mining community so far has been good, and early indications are that most, if not all, of the major Canadian mining companies will participate in the plan.

Also on the committee are Diepedaume Mines’ Pat Sheridan; Maurice Brown, publisher of The Northern Miner; Falconbridge Ltd. Chairman Bill James; Will Baker of Hemlo Gold and former Ontario Northern Affairs Minister Leo Bernier.

Slack resigned as president of Belmoral Mines Oct 1, but remains on the board as a director. He is also a former executive with Lac Minerals and Pamour Porcupine Mines.

Two of Belmoral Mines’ hottest properties are in Timmins, says former president Malcolm Slack, in Timmins for a November meeting of the Porcupine branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

The Broulan project on the site of the once-producing Broulan Reef mine and the Vedron project, near another former producer, the Buffalo Ankerite, together are expected to undergo as much as $37 million in exploration and development work this year and in 1988.

Broken down, $15 million to $20 million will be spent on exploration and development at the Broulan site — $10 million of which will be spent by the end of February, 1988 — and as much as $17.5 million could be spent on the Vedron project. Slack said $6.5 million has already been spent, with another $11 million possible before a production decision is reached by March 1.

There seems little doubt that both projects will eventually become producing gold mines in Timmins, said Slack, who was working underground at the McIntyre mine in 1953 when a strike prompted him to attend the Haileybury School of Mines. He later attended the University of Western Ontario in London.

“None of us believes we are not going to be mining in these two locations,” Black said of the two Timmins projects. “The old Buffalo Ankerite (which closed in 1956 after mining five million tons grading about 0.20 oz gold per ton and which Belmoral and Vedron plan to reopen) is unexplored below the 2,500-ft level. The Paymaster, right next door, mined six million tons at about the same grade.”

He said the Timmins projects were not exploration risks — all the geology of the area suggests strongly that mineralization occurs well below the 2,500-ft level — but more of a developmental risk.

“If you stand back and squint, it’s highly improbable there is no more ore in the Vedron area below 2,500 ft,” he said. “There were ores at the old (and nearby) Aunor down to the 5,200-ft level and Paymaster mineralization went below 6,000 ft. So there is every likelihood there is a lot of mineable ore below the 2,500-ft level at the old Buffalo Ankerite.”

A shaft refurbishing is in the cards in the future for the Buffalo Ankerite property as well, said Slack (the office building has already been refurbished and serves as Belmoral’s Timmins headquarters), but for the moment exploration is being concentrated beneath McDonald Hill at the 275- and 375-ft levels, from a ramp that has been driven to a vertical depth of 500 ft.

Over at Broulan, where a new headframe and a mine plant have been installed (the plant has the capability to hoist from the 5,000-ft level), the 2,500-ft-deep Broulan shaft has been dewatered to the 1,000-ft level. Dewatering is expected to be completed by the end of January and exploration will continue at depth.

Underground miners are currently driving on the fifth level toward a surface-indicated ore zone. Again Slack said the Broulan project — which encompasses the former 5,200-ft-deep Hallnor mine on three sides — is largely unexplored below 2,500 ft.

While operating, the Hallnor produced about four milllion tons of ore at a high grade of 0.42 oz gold per ton. Ore reserves and grades at the Vedron and Broulan projects have not yet been calculated, said Slack, but the last major vein mined at Hallnor was about 0.50 oz.

“There are major pieces of the 3.9-mile strike that have no
t been mined at the Broulan site,” said Slack, “and there has been no exploration below the 1,500-ft level.”